Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has attacked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which he described as a toothless bulldog.
Obasanjo said, though the anti-graft body became dreaded during the time of the pioneer Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, it has become a toothless bulldog.
While speaking, on Saturday, during his 79th birthday celebration, held at Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, the former Nigerian leader wondered what had happened to the anti-graft agency that led to its present status.
According to him, gone were the days when the people believed that “the fear of Nuhu Ribadu is the beginning of wisdom”.
The former President, however, advised the Buhari government and stakeholders to take a critical look at the situation that made the agency lose its power to tame corruption and avoid it.
He said government must avoid any action that could make the agency take a step forward and three steps backward.
Obasajo said, “Honestly, when Nuhu was handling EFCC, he handled it in such a way that people coined the saying that ‘ the fear of Nuhu Ribadu is the beginning of wisdom ‘ and then the question you will ask is, how did we go down? How did we lose that?
“Nuhu Ribadu is still here, he’s still alive. The institution we started together is still there, but what made the institution to become a toothless bulldog? What? And that’s the matter we have to keep looking at, so that we don’t take two steps forward, one step aside and three steps back.”
